On March 7, it was reported that a North Carolina driver was charged after a passenger, who was riding in the bed of his pickup truck, fell onto the road. The man, who was identified as a 36-year-old Wilmington resident, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Authorities stated that the man had been sitting in an office chair that was placed into the bed of the pickup truck when the accident happened. The driver, a 34-year-old man, was charged with multiple offences, including driving while intoxicated, reckless driving, felony death by motor vehicle and driving with a suspended license. He was being held on a $500,000 bond.
Negligent drivers can cause harm to other people even when there is not a collision. In this particular case, the fact that the motorist was intoxicated and allowed the behavior to take place may be enough to establish liability for the man’s death. In such a situation, the surviving family members of a person who is killed may want to meet with an attorney to see if the filing of a wrongful death lawsuit would be advisable.
In that type of civil litigation, the survivors might be entitled to seek a variety of damages. In addition to funeral and burial expenses, the family could ask to be compensated for the loss of financial contributions that the decedent had been making to the household budget. This could be extremely important if the person who was killed was the sole or primary breadwinner, for example. The attorney could provide advice as to what other types of damages might be available.
Source: twcnews.com, “Man Riding Office Chair in Bed of Pickup Truck Killed; Driver Charged“, Spectrum-TWC News Staff, March 7, 2017